When I attended one of my first Search Engine Strategies ^[2] meetings in Toronto a number of years ago, I remember Danny Sullivan (who now oversees Search Engine Land ^[3]) standing up and saying something to the extent of, “Content will drive search in the future and you’ll have to know how to develop this content.”

I wanted to stand up in the crowded room, raise my hands in the air and do a booty dance right there. Woot!

You see, I’m a marketer who had to learn to think like an SEO — and now that content IS driving search, I feel like I’ve come home.

Because I know content inside and out, I am thrilled to be the featured speaker for SEMNE ^[4]‘s (Search Engine Marketing New England) September meeting in the local Boston area.

The topic? Content Marketing for the SEO Professional.

I’m really excited about this session because I’m approaching it from a marketing versus SEO perspective. A few months ago Google’s Matt Cutts said (in either one of his talks or in one of his Google Buzz posts) that SEO professionals need to start thinking like marketers.

This means that in order to add significant value to client relationships, SEO professionals must now give recommendations for creating content that gets found in the search engines and passed around via social media.

Is this topic up my alley or what?

In my presentation, I’ll be covering:

* Answering site visitors’ unspoken questions through content

* Using Google Analytics, Alerts, and social media to develop content ideas

* Recommending the types of content that helps drive conversions

I’m really excited about this presentation and have already lined up all kinds of content examples for both B2B and B2C.

So please join me and lots of other SEO / search pros on Wednesday, September 15. I look forward to seeing you!

Meeting Details:
Location: Crown Plaza Hotel, Natick, MA
Date and time: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
6:30 – 7:30 Networking
7:30 – 9:00 Talk and questions

Visit SEMNE.org ^[5] to register.

EDITED: September 17, 2010 — Presentation now available.

Due to numerous requests, I’ve uploaded my presentation, Content Marketing for SEO Professionals ^[6], to SlideShare.